Update Gnome on Ubuntu 16.04

Question

I installed gnome on Ubuntu 16.04. I used the package ubuntu-gnome-desktop

My question : Is there any safe way to update gnome to 3.22? Also did i installed gnome correctly? Right now i am using Gnome-Shell 3.18.5

Solution

There is no official way to update gnome to the latest release without using ppa's. However, they generally work very well. This website should give you the instructions you need:

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/05/install-gnome-3-20-ubuntu-16-04-lts

We’ll use the Terminal to add the two GNOME 3 PPAs:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

Next, refresh your software sources:

sudo apt update 

Finally upgrade (if you already have GNOME-Shell installed) using:

sudo apt dist-upgrade 

Or install GNOME (if you don’t already use it):

sudo apt install gnome gnome-shell

Comments

[mikewhatever]

The answer primarily depends on what you mean by "safe way"?

[Dergon]

i mean a way that wont 't break my ubuntu installation.

[Admin]

I have quite a bit of experience with trying to install GNOME on other flavours, and let's just say that whenever I tried to just install GNOME rather than do a fresh install of Ubuntu GNOME, it all ended in disaster. So no, I would not say that you did it the "safe way". The safest way to do it would be to put Ubuntu GNOME on a LiveUSB and do a fresh install of it or get it running in a VM.

[Dergon]

I installed gnome from the ubuntu repository. Everything went fine. I even updated gnome from 3.18 to 3.20.

[Dergon]

Thank you i will try it. Did i installed gnome correctly using the ubuntu-gnome-desktop package?

[labarna]

Yep, and the ppa's will add the newer packages. You can choose how "bleeding-edge" you're willing to go. I generally find most of them very stable.

[Dergon]

If something goes wrong can i reverse? and how?

[Dergon]

Actually i just updated to gnome 3.20 and everything went fine. But when i first logged in i was getting a message System program problem detected i ran sudo rm /var/crash/* in the terminal, i restarted and i dont get the message anymore. I didnt get any log why i got this message just a report problem button.

[labarna]

You will get some errors messages like that, but they're mostly safe to ignore.